Sermon: Gods, Coins, and Glory
Caesar can have his coins because the earth is the LORD’s and everything in it.
Caesar can have his tax because the cattle on a thousand hills belong to the LORD.
Caesar can have his money because his power is neither absolute nor divine.
That all belongs to YHWH.
God's image has been imprinted upon humanity, and it is our holy task to let that divine spark shine to the glory of God's name.
Sermon + Commentary: Idols, Invitations, and the Immortal
Israel wanted images of their new gods. Their God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses was invisible. The living God could be seen through fire and cloud, plague, passover and parting the sea, but the people wanted something they could look at. In their short-sighted haste, they trade the invisible for the visible, the one true God for a false idol, the omnipotent for the impotent.
Sermon: Is the LORD Among Us or Not?
Jesus tells them that tax collectors and prostitutes are getting into the kingdom of God ahead of them. His cousin, John the baptizer, came with the good news and the religious elite didn’t listen but the social outcasts did. Birthday parties for prostitutes, receptions for tax collectors, banquets for lepers and sinners and ragamuffins. The mercy of God has been on full display with all of the wrong sorts of people getting in like Flynn to the kingdom of God and it has not moved the religious crowd toward conversion, confession, or conviction.
Instead, their hearts have calcified.
He says: And even after you saw it, you didn’t change your mind and believe.
Again, I ask, Is the LORD among us or not?
